Follow-up meeting on allegations of maladministration at NSFAS: NSFAS & NEHAWU response to Committee questions; postponed

Higher Education, Science and Innovation

30 October 2020
Chairperson: Mr P Mapulane (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

Video: Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology (NA) 30 Oct 2020

09 Oct 2020

Allegations of maladministration at NSFAS: NEHAWU briefing & NSFAS response

The Committee scheduled a follow up engagement with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) on allegations that were raised by NEHAWU against NSFAS and its Administrator. During the initial engagement, there were specific issues that Members required specific responses to which were not provided at the time. This necessitated the follow up engagement.

The meeting did not go as planned as NEHAWU sent a letter of apology on the last minute.

Members were infuriated that NEHAWU “pulled a stunt” and suggested that the meeting be postponed. The Committee could not engage on the presentations that were sent by NEHAWU without its presence. Members expressed their disappointment and resolved to send a strong message to NEHAWU for undermining the Committee’s work. NEHAWU came to the Committee and brought all the allegations against NSFAS and its Administrator and now that the process has commenced, it pulls out and does so in such a premature manner. This trumps its credibility and the Committee would write to the parliamentary leadership to seek counsel on whether subpoenas should be issued to either NEHAWU or the individuals who presented the allegations under the banner of the Union.

Though NSFAS and its Administrator were present, the Committee did not engage with them. 

Meeting report

Opening remarks

The Chairperson welcomed everyone present and submitted that the agenda for today’s meeting was to follow up with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) on allegations that had been raised with Committee. The Chairperson received a letter from NEHAWU’s Provincial Secretary, Mr Eric Kweleta, stating that it would not be attending today’s Committee meeting.

He read out the letter as follows, “Please be advised that the National Union will be convening its first and very important national executive committee meeting from 30 to 31 October, as a result we will not be able to attend the Portfolio Committee meeting. Please note that the national office bearers together with the Minister have engaged on matters related to NSFAS resulting to all those employees who have been suspended reporting back to work tomorrow; and further agreed to the process to resolve the outstanding issues. Guided by this process outlined above, we will then determine when we will refer back to the Committee. We hope that the Portfolio Committee processes relating to employer and employees.”

The Chairperson was not certain whether the actual reason for not attending was due to the national executive committee meeting taking place today until 31 October, or if it was due to its engagements with the Minister regarding NSFAS. Nevertheless, this was the submitted apology from NEHAWU. The Committee has been in communication with the Provincial Secretary. The Committee has received the presentation from NEHAWU but it was not able to be present. Therefore, he was of the view that the meeting should not proceed without NEHAWU being present. All matters that were raised by NEHAWU against NSFAS had nothing to with employee/employer relations. It is more about governance, management and administration of NSFAS.

He proposed the postponement of the meeting as Members could not engage the presentation without NEHAWU’s presence. The Committee would then find out from NEHAWU to ascertain whether it was still interested in ventilating and engaging on these matters. It is unfortunate that this happened at such last minute. This reminded him about the same incident that happened before regarding THE Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), when NEHAWU raised serious allegations on matters regarding management, governance and administration at that institution.

He expressed his disappointment but that there was nothing he could do at this point. The Committee received both presentations from NSFAS and NEHAWU for this meeting. Members could engage with NSFAS but it would be pointless if NEHAWU was not present.

The Chairperson said he received a letter from a senior employee at NSFAS and he communicated this to the Administrator. He was not happy with how it appeared that the senior official at NSFAS, Ms Sibongile Mncwabe. Two Members of NEHAWU were told to report for duty today and basically not attend this meeting. It appears that someone is trying to manipulate attendance. When people are invited to the Committee, the Committee did not want people being threatened by their employers for attending the Committee meeting. Nobody should be prevented from attending the meeting - this directly affects the work of the Committee.

Mr B Nodada (DA) said that the pullout from NEHAWU was “fishy” and this gives Members more reason to look at the issues that have been raised by NEHAWU to the Committee. He proposed that the Committee investigate the correspondence between NEHAWU and the Minister. The meeting should continue because Members already had all the information. This gives the Committee more reason to probe.

The Committee should subpoena NEHAWU and continue with the meeting as scheduled as Members had all the information before them to engage on the matters.

Mr T Letsie (ANC) said that there was a continued effort to undermine the work of the Committee. The last minute withdrawal from NEHAWU is manifest to that but the Committee will continue to hold all stakeholders accountable. What is more concerning is that there are a significant number of students in the country who do not have funding.

Members stayed up all night preparing for this engagement in order to effectively and properly hold these stakeholders accountable, only to have NEHAWU withdraw. He suggested that the meeting continued because there were allegations raised and it is uncertain whether the Committee will have an opportunity to have a meeting on this matter again.

Further, he proposed the Committee institute a forensic investigation on the allegations raised. He was really concerned about whether the Committee would have an opportunity to engage and discuss these matters before Parliament rises for the year.

He agreed with the suggestion to subpoena NEHAWU to come and account.

Dr W Boshoff (FF Plus) said that it seemed as if someone was trying to sabotage the work of the Committee and suggested that the Committee meeting proceeded as planned.

The Chairperson welcomed the suggestions made by Members to proceed but the question is who is going to respond to the questions and whether the Committee stands to achieve what it wants to achieve if the meeting continued. The Committee will not allow Parliament to rise before this matter has been addressed and NEHAWU appeared before the Committee.

Mr S Ngcobo (IFP) said he suspected that there was a lot happening under the ground. He supported the suggestion from the Chairperson to discontinue and postpone the meeting.  He believes that there may be people trying to sabotage this process.

He also supported the suggestion to subpoena NEHAWU to appear before the Committee.

Ms J Mananiso (ANC) also agreed to have the meeting postponed. The Committee has continued to ensure that stakeholder relations are strengthened.

Dr S Thembekwayo (EFF) supported the view to continue with the meeting and disregard NEHAWU’s excuse.

Mr Letsie conveyed Ms N Mkhatshwa’s (ANC) views which were to discontinue the meeting and subpoena NEHAWU to appear. This should be done at an earliest convenience next week.

The Chairperson lamented that this was the second time this happened and it needed to be resolved. If the Committee proceeded today it would miss the opportunity to engage with NEHAWU. The Committee must send a strong a message to NEHAWU and its credibility was in question on this matter. For a union that is representing workers, it was seriously bringing its credibility to question. NEHAWU came before the Committee on the raised serious issues which deserved the Committee’s attention but now it is running away.

The Committee must send a strong message so that Parliament was not undermined. It looks as if deals are being made being Members’ backs and if there is a joint proposal, it should be brought to the Committee’s attention in a transparent way. As a matter of principle, there was nothing wrong with engagement – the Committee has consistently encouraged engagement with all stakeholders. This whole thing was now “shady”. If NEHAWU continues on this path the Committee will cease to take it seriously and it will impact on its credibility. NEHAWU utilised Parliament as a bargaining chip and this will not be accepted. The Committee will communicate to NEHAWU on this attitude.

The Committee will find a date to invite both NSFAS and NEHAWU to come before the Committee. And advice will be sought on issuing the subpoenas.

This will be communicated to the parliamentary leadership to seek advice on whether the subpoenas should be issued to the Union or the individuals who came before the Committee under the banner of NEHAWU. These people cannot make a mockery of oversight work.

The Committee needs to work from the list of all employees invited before Parliament - if they are not willing to come, subpoenas will be issued.

The letter from Ms Mncwabe must be withdrawn. People on that level of management must not intimidate people who are called to come before Parliament. The Committee demands an apology and a written explanation about the intention behind her letter.

He apologised to Dr Randall Carolissen (NSFAS Adminstrator) for not proceeding with the meeting due to the absence of NEHAWU. Hopefully, NSFAS would make itself available on the decided date. The Committee will look into whether it can shift things around to slot in this engagement.

The Chairperson said he was in contact with the Auditor-General last week to find out the status of the audits. The AG confirmed that it was finalising the audits but the NSFAS audit has not yet been finalised and it may be dealt with next year.

Dr Carolissen said that he was looking forward to this session because there were many issues that NSFAS wanted to disclose and be transparent on, such as the laptop tender processes.  

He assured the Committee that he takes its work seriously and he would not prevent anybody from coming to the Committee. He would provide the exact letter that Ms Mncwabe presented and when he asked her about it, she said the intention was not to prevent anyone from coming to the Committee, but it was misunderstood.

The Chairperson said the letter gave the impression that if the employee did not show up for work, he would be charged with absconding. Either way, the Committee demands an explanation and an apology because the letter sought to undermine or prevent the Committee from doing its work.

Consideration of Outstanding Committee minutes

The Committee considered and adopted the minutes of 20, 21 and 23 October 2020.

The meeting was adjourned.

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